Born in Toomebridge, Northern Ireland, Michael Laverty raced in British Supersport from 2001 to 2004, which prompted a move to the British Superbike Championship for 2005 and 2006 with Stobart Motorsport. For 2007 he dropped back down to the British Supersport Championship, taking the title with the Relentless Racing by TAS Suzuki team. With the same team, he then moved back up to the British Superbike Championship, after which he contested in the American AMA Superbike Championship as well as at select World Supersport rounds in 2009. In 2010 he headed back to native soil as he re-signed for the Relentless Suzuki team in British Superbikes, following which he stayed in the championship for a further two years - in 2011 with Swan Yamaha and 2012 with Samsung Honda. In 2013 he teamed up with PBM to make his first foray into MotoGP™ with the team’s in-house built chassis, but from Aragón onwards moved onto the outfit’s ART frame. He remained with the squad in 2014, as both he and team-mate Broc Parkes of Australia compete with the team’s own PBM machine to ‘Open’ technical regulations. After a brief gap, Laverty rejoined the MotoGP grid half way through the 2015 season, replacing Marco Melandri in the Aprilia Racing Team Gresini from the German GP onwards.